Perhaps one of the most consistent and unprecedented challenges facing the world presently is hunger. Hunger refers to a situation of inadequate food supply in a specific part or region. But when we use the term world hunger, we are referring to a situation where there are numerous cases of acute global food shortage. Several factors have or contribute to the acceleration of world hunger. They include natural causes such as floods, droughts and even earthquakes. Man-made causes such as continued deforestation and lack of proper planning on part of some governments. Poverty and increased climate change also contribute to the rising world hunger.
It is the moral obligation and responsibility of every government to ensure that its population is fed thus preserving room for the future generation. Many economic and political systems are headed by the minority who control the nation’s resources. They are thus in a position to live well while the majority of the population suffer silently. Unstable political systems provide room for internal conflicts creating instead internally displaced people whilst disrupting farming in those particular states. According to a report by the UNHCR in 2008, over 1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger. Money contributed towards hunger elimination usually lands in the wrong hands thus becoming misappropriated.
It is, therefore, true enough to state that corrupt and oppressive political systems around the world have contributed a great deal towards the escalation of world hunger. In Africa for instance, leaders use the raging hunger as a platform to political greatness a thing which I think can only be significantly reduced only if severe sanctions are imposed as was the case with Zimbabwe. Why? Because every aspect of humanity points to the fact that a hungry man is an angry man and therefore there is the likelihood that the people might try to consolidate power thus prompting the leadership to retaliate which in turn might generate civil war and anarchy. This means that there will be refugees who will have to be fed with an even greater urgency thus topping up the world hunger figure. Farming activities that ensure the countries agricultural stability might also have to be interrupted in some cases even for years, leaving large tracts of land lying idle and uncultivated. Zimbabwe in Africa is an example of an economy hard hit by severe inflation as a result of bad governance to the extent that border crossings into South Africa is a daily routine and lawlessness due to desperation contributes to increased crime rate and reduced morality amongst the country’s urban population. A report in 2002 by the Food and Agricultural Organization revealed that the world’s agriculture produces enough to feed everyone. This, however, is jeopardized by the fact that most third world countries lack proper storage facilities and even so farmers in these same nations are particularly mistreated by the ruling regimes as most of them go unpaid for the produce they had already submitted.
While I agree that other major factors are contributing to world hunger, it is also important to realize the root cause which to me is bad governance fueled by greed and impartiality on part of the leaders. My behaviour is therefore consistent with Bad ethics which in turn gives birth to bad behaviour and it is this bad behaviour amongst governments that should be discouraged, setting the agenda for unflawed political systems that can, in turn, ensure that the decision on how to share the national cake is not rested on one or a few individuals.